Here’s what you didn’t know about late Minister James Ocholi

The Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Mr. James Ocholi, alongside his wife and son, lost their lives in a ghastly car accident along the Kaduna-Abuja road on Sunday afternoon. One of the tires of the vehicle reportedly burst, drifted off the road, and somersaulted several times into the bush. While Ocholi, 55, and his son, Aaron Enojo, 20, died instantly, his wife, Blessing Fatima made it to the hospital. She later died from injuries sustained in the crash.

Enojo James Ocholi, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) was born on 26th November 1960 to the family of James Momoh Odoh at Idah. However here are a few things you didn’t know about Mr Ocholi:

Ocholi was a stammerer.

He worked as consultant to Government, Parastatals, banks, financial institutions and corporate bodies.

As a teenager, Ocholi would received a scholarship from the then Benue state government to study law.

He studied law in the University of Jos and after he finished from the Nigerian Law School in 1986, he was admitted to the Nigerian Bar the same year.

The late minister did not become a SAN until a second attempt. In 2006, Ocholi applied for the conferment of the rank but was not successful and he applied again the following year, fortunately for him, he was conferred with the title of Senior Advocate of Nigeria in December 2007

Ocholi was the deputy National Legal Adviser of the APC and was also the Kogi state coordinator of the Muhammadu Buhari presidential campaign.

He contested in the Kogi State gubernatorial elections in 2011 on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and lost to Idris Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party. He also sought the APC governorship ticket in 2015 but lost to former governor of the state, late Prince Abubakar Audu.

The late minister of state died barely eight months before his 56th birthday.

The late Ocholi won the hearts of many, after impressing the members of the upper chambers of the National Assembly during the ministerial screening.